Back on Track . . .

Well I should say back on treadmill but that sounds strange! I am the worst blogger ever. I really want to do better. When it is quite and savannah is napping and I have 2 hours to myself my mind starts to argue with itself. You should go exercise says my fat belly, you should work on bows or blog says my mind, you should sit and be lazy watch some TV, says my tired body. More often that not lately the fat belly wins. I have been spending a lot of my "me" time working out on my days off. On the days I do work I just get up before the rest of the world and work out then. Some friends of mine have started a Biggest looser weight loss blog that I have been contributing too for the past 5 weeks. We all put $10 into the pot and whoever has the biggest % of weight loss after 10 weeks gets the pot. I was not doing very well with it for about 4 weeks. I was not putting the 110% that I know I can put into something when I put my mind to it. But something snapped inside of me and I just started to run. I told myself "I know i can do this, I know I can eat better. I know how easy it is to eat 200 calories, but I also know how much it takes to burn 200 calories." I only had two more baby LB to go. Well I did it.My baby weight is gone. Now don't get excited. Its no where near time to put that weight back on. I would never dream of starting another pregnancy at this weight ever again! I am now going to loose what i call "My Happy Married weight" Ya I have 30 of those LB to loose. There is no way that all 30 LB will come off in the amount of time I am giving myself. But hey I am going to try my very best. I am going to take this new sense of power and (pardon the pun) RUN WITH IT!!! There is just a sense on Empowerment when you accomplish a goal. So with that I have posted a few pictures of my new favorite things in my new life!






My shoes, ipod, water bottle, exercise ball, weights, Bob and jillian on DVD, and most of all my treadmill. I am really enjoying this new lease on life. I hope it inspires you to be the best you can be. I may not blog more often but hey its worth it!

Our Bow blog!

http://ssbows.blogspot.com/

We are working on red white and blue bows get your orders in!

OK OK OK OK

I warned everyone when I started this that I am really bad at updating my blog and I don't have much to say!
So since the last up date (january 8th) lets see what has happened. I turned 30 on January 25th. My wonderful husband Scott planned a surprise party for me. It was fun for everyone to get together.
Savannah is growing by leaps and bounds. She knows so much more than I think a 2 year old should know. Here is my most updated picture.

She really keeps us on our toes. Savannah and I were at a craft store yesterday, a woman that works there was putting something on a low shelf and had a hard time getting back up. The woman said "OMG" and savannah being the fearless two year old looked at the woman (with pointed finger out and other had on hip) and said "we say oh my goodness not oh my God, you need a time out!" I explained to the woman that we don't use the lords name in vain in our home. She apologized to savannah and said she will try to say oh my goodness instead. I informed savannah that she needed to thank the lady for saying sorry. Savannah said "thank you for saying sorry." And we turned to keep looking for our buttons.
The reason for shopping at the craft store was to buy a few more bow making supplies. For those of you who I haven't told yet, I am going public and selling my bows.
There is a store in Castro Valley called "Village Crafters". It is in the village shopping center behind Ross. You rent space in there and they sell your product for you! I am really excited about getting my bows out there for sale. I took some photos today of a few bows to give you an idea what they will look like.


I can't take all the credit. my sister Stefanie has been helping me out and is making bows to sell as well.
I have been so busy during Savannah's naps making bows. I really have a hard time doing any computer work or bow stuff while she is awake. She is quite the helper. She got a great idea the other day that she needed to clean Auntie Tami's Shower. (my co-worker spends the night once a week at my house so the office is auntie Tami's bedroom and the hall bathroom is auntie Tami's bathroom) Here is Savannah cleaning auntie Tami's shower.




She is just so much fun! Anyways I think that all the news I have for now. We are just moving along and living life.

Mom we don't say . . .

So savannah has gotten really good at telling EVERYONE what words we can and can't say. We don't say Crap, stupid, and oh my gosh. So the other day Savannah Was saying her ABC'S and it came out ABCDEEEHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ. When she was all done I asked her "What about F and G" (go ahead say it to your self for a minute) So ya it sounds bad. I had scott rolling on the floor and saying mommy we don't talk like that. Who knew the ABC's Were so bad?

Too Many Christmas Cookies. . .

So I have been wanting to make these Neiman Marcus/Mrs. Fields cookies for a while now, so I figured I would make them for Santa. 

The Recipe is quite Large it makes 112 cookies. So I started to read the recipe 2 Cups of Butter. Ok so thats 8 Sticks of butter? Who knows What I was thinking I don't know. So I doubled the butter but not everything else. When I was done mixing it all together the dough looked a little wet I read the recipe more closely and then thought about what I had done. The Word C R A P passed my lips, With Savannah following it will "We don't say Crap  mommy, We don't say Crap mommy, We don't say crap mommy!" She thinks because she is telling me that we don't say it, that's it ok for her to say it over and over and over again. At least 10 times. 

Back to the cookies. So I then proceeded to double the rest of the recipe.  Much to my dismay the doubled batch did not fit in my kitchenaid 6 quart mixer. Who knew I would ever need one of those restaurant style mixers. 

So I finished it by hand and then proceed to roll and bake all 224 cookies. That is a lot of cookies.  I just wish we had taken a picture of the pile before we started to give them away.  If you are interested here is the recipe. . . 

(Recipe may be halved): 

2 cups butter 
4 cups flour 
2 tsp. baking soda 
2 cups granulated sugar 
2 cups brown sugar 
5 cups blended oatmeal (measure oatmeal and blend in blender to a fine powder) 
24 oz. chocolate chips 
1 tsp. salt 
1 8 oz. Hershey bar (grated) 
4 eggs 
2 tsp. baking powder 
3 cups chopped nuts (your choice) 
2 tsp. vanilla 

Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla; mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda. Add chocolate chips, Hershey bar and nuts. Roll into balls and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet..Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes 112 cookies.. Have Fun!!!

Christmas time is here . . .

Just in case I don't have your address for  Christmas letters here is ours for this year!


2008 has brought a lot of joy and happiness.

We moved into the house on Christmas Eve last year and are still working on it. What’s the saying? “A carpenter’s house is never finished.” We hope that we can get the final details finished in 2009. For Thanksgiving we traveled to Cedar City, Utah and spent a few days at the Petersen family reunion. It was great to catch up with the family and meet all the new additions.

Savannah turned 2 in October and can spell her name, identify her colors, count to 20 and recite the alphabet. She loves to sing “Once There was a Snowman,” “Happy Birthday” and “The Wheels on the Bus.” She talks non-stop identifying landmarks on drives in the car, asking where friends and relatives are and what they are doing, requests her favorite TV shows by name and is into cars, animals, princesses, makeup and Christmas. A few of her favorite phrases are: ”I don’t think so” at bedtime, “We just look, we don’t touch decorations” and “How ‘bout....” to negotiate for what she really wants. Savannah loves to spend time with her grandparents, and cousins. Cousin “Mal Mal” (Mallory who is six weeks younger) is her absolute favorite to play with.

Shaleah continues to work 3 days a week for Dr. Sylvester’s dental office. The other days are full of household chores, shopping and playing with Savannah. She also finds time to make bows and is starting her own website: MommyMakesBows.com

Scott took a test for the Stationary Engineers Union and placed 13th on their 1300 person waiting list. If the economy ever turns around they will start hiring again. For now he remodels bathrooms and maintains restaurants.

We hope that this Christmas Season finds you happy and healthy. To keep in touch the other 11 months of the year, email us at: sssimpson@hotmail.com. We have also started a family blog at: ssssimpson@blogspot.com. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Scott, Shaleah and Savannah Simpson

reasons for not blogging . .

so I got into the twilight books and now I am on book 4. Every chance I get I read and when I am not doing that I do have a daughter, husband and house to take care of. I know I need to update my blog but hey. . . it's not my fault the books are so good!  I promise soon I will be done!